KNIGHTS, Emma

Emma Knights holds First Class Honours in a Bachelor of Popular Music, an Advanced Diploma in Classical Piano Performance, and a Bachelor of Creative Arts with a composition and creative writing focus. Her professional career includes touring as a pianist with Opera Queensland, Vintage Vendetta, being an invited accompanist at international vocal conferences, serving on arts panels, curating Adelaide Fringe venues, and earning numerous awards through her company, Emma Knights Productions.

In 2018, Emma premiered her one-woman show The Piano Men, since performed in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, and Edinburgh. She debuted The Piano Women in 2019 which was reviewed by International Piano Magazine. These cabaret shows focus on lesser-known women piano composers from the 1700s to today. Her debut pop album Anticipate came out in 2020. Since 2021, she has staged sellout runs of her original music cabarets, including Myths, Legends and Fantasy (nominated for RnD Young Howze “Liza” Best Cabaret of the Year Award, Philadelphia Fringe, 2024), Turning the Page (nominated for Best Music, Melbourne Fringe 2023), and The Men I Love. Her song “Surrender to You” was a top 15 finalist in the SCALA People’s Choice Awards in 2018, and she was nominated in the SA Music Awards People’s Choice Pop Category in 2021. In 2024, she co-wrote the parody musical Beauty & the Bachie with Samara Gill, which premiered at Adelaide Fringe.

As a composer, Emma has created scores for short films (The Crane Wife, Attrition) and theatre (4000 Miles). Her solo piano piece, Song for Cocoa, received high commendation at SCALA’s FOOM, 2020. In 2023, she composed Fan for the Fare for Norwood Symphony Orchestra’s March of the Women concert and was awarded the 2024 Elder Music Lab Commission resulting in new works for wind quintet and string quartet. Her orchestrations of Lili Boulanger’s Trios Morceaux pour Piano were debuted by the all-female orchestra, Virago, at the Bourla Theatre, Belgium in March 2025.

She is a current Candidate for Master of Philosophy at Adelaide University exploring music and grief.